The Two Babylons Alexander Hislop

Chapter III
Section III The Nativity of St. John

The Feast of the Nativity of St.
John is set down in the Papal calendar for the 24th of June, or Midsummer-day.
The very same period was equally memorable in the Babylonian calendar as that
of one of its most celebrated festivals. It was at Midsummer, or the summer
solstice, that the month called in Chaldea, Syria, and Phoenicia by the name
of "Tammuz" began; and on the first day--that is, on or about the 24th of June--one
of the grand original festivals of Tammuz was celebrated. *

For different reasons, in different
countries, other periods had been devoted to commemorate the death and reviving
of the Babylonian god; but this, as may be inferred from the name of the month,
appears to have been the real time when his festival was primitively observed
in the land where idolatry had its birth. And so strong was the hold that this
festival, with its peculiar rites, had taken of the minds of men, that even
when other days were devoted to the great events connected with the Babylonian
Messiah, as was the case in some parts of our own land, this sacred season could
not be allowed to pass without the due observance of some, at least, of its
peculiar rites. When the Papacy sent its emissaries over Europe, towards the
end of the sixth century, to gather in the Pagans into its fold, this festival
was found in high favour in many countries. What was to be done with it? Were
they to wage war with it? No. This would have been contrary to the famous advice
of Pope Gregory I, that, by all means they should meet the Pagans half-way,
and so bring them into the Roman Church. The Gregorian policy was carefully
observed; and so Midsummer-day, that had been hallowed by Paganism to the worship
of Tammuz, was incorporated as a sacred Christian festival in the Roman calendar.

But still a question was to be determined,
What was to be the name of this Pagan festival, when it was baptised, and admitted
into the ritual of Roman Christianity? To call it by its old name of Bel or
Tammuz, at the early period when it seems to have been adopted, would have been
too bold. To call it by the name of Christ was difficult, inasmuch as there
was nothing special in His history at that period to commemorate. But the subtlety
of the agents of the Mystery of Iniquity was not to be baffled. If the name
of Christ could not be conveniently tacked to it, what should hinder its being
called by the name of His forerunner, John the Baptist? John the Baptist was
born six months before our Lord. When, therefore, the Pagan festival of the
winter solstice had once been consecrated as the birthday of the Saviour, it
followed, as a matter of course, that if His forerunner was to have a festival
at all, his festival must be at this very season; for between the 24th of June
and the 25th of December--that is, between the summer and the winter solstice--there
are just six months. Now, for the purposes of the Papacy, nothing could be more
opportune than this. One of the many sacred names by which Tammuz or Nimrod
was called, when he reappeared in the Mysteries, after being slain, was Oannes.
*

* BEROSUS, BUNSEN'S
Egypt. To identify Nimrod with Oannes, mentioned by Berosus as appearing out
of the sea, it will be remembered that Nimrod has been proved to be Bacchus.
Then, for proof that Nimrod or Bacchus, on being overcome by his enemies, was
fabled to have taken refuge in the sea, see chapter 4, section i. When, therefore,
he was represented as reappearing, it was natural that he should reappear in
the very character of Oannes as a Fish-god. Now, Jerome calls Dagon, the well
known Fish-god Piscem moeroris (BRYANT), "the fish of sorrow," which goes far
to identify that Fish-god with Bacchus, the "Lamented one"; and the identification
is complete when Hesychius tells us that some called Bacchus Ichthys, or "The
fish."

The name of John the Baptist, on
the other hand, in the sacred language adopted by the Roman Church, was Joannes.
To make the festival of the 24th of June, then, suit Christians and Pagans alike,
all that was needful was just to call it the festival of Joannes; and thus the
Christians would suppose that they were honouring John the Baptist, while the
Pagans were still worshipping their old god Oannes, or Tammuz. Thus, the very
period at which the great summer festival of Tammuz was celebrated in ancient
Babylon, is at this very hour observed in the Papal Church as the Feast of the
Nativity of St. John. And the fete of St. John begins exactly as the festal
day began in Chaldea. It is well known that, in the East, the day began in the
evening. So, though the 24th be set down as the nativity, yet it is on St. John's
EVE--that is, on the evening of the 23rd--that the festivities and solemnities
of that period begin.

Now, if we examine the festivities
themselves, we shall see how purely Pagan they are, and how decisively they
prove their real descent. The grand distinguishing solemnities of St. John's
Eve are the Midsummer fires. These are lighted in France, in Switzerland, in
Roman Catholic Ireland, and in some of the Scottish isles of the West, where
Popery still lingers. They are kindled throughout all the grounds of the adherents
of Rome, and flaming brands are carried about their corn-fields. Thus does Bell,
in his Wayside Pictures, describe the St. John's fires of Brittany, in France:
"Every fete is marked by distinct features peculiar to itself. That of St. John
is perhaps, on the whole, the most striking. Throughout the day the poor children
go about begging contributions for lighting the fires of Monsieur St. Jean,
and towards evening one fire is gradually followed by two, three, four; then
a thousand gleam out from the hill-tops, till the whole country glows under
the conflagration. Sometimes the priests light the first fire in the market
place; and sometimes it is lighted by an angel, who is made to descend by a
mechanical device from the top of the church, with a flambeau in her hand, setting
the pile in a blaze, and flying back again. The young people dance with a bewildering
activity about the fires; for there is a superstition among them that, if they
dance round nine fires before midnight, they will be married in the ensuing
year. Seats are placed close to the flaming piles for the dead, whose spirits
are supposed to come there for the melancholy pleasure of listening once more
to their native songs, and contemplating the lively measures of their youth.
Fragments of the torches on those occasions are preserved as spells against
thunder and nervous diseases; and the crown of flowers which surmounted the
principal fire is in such request as to produce tumultuous jealousy for its
possession." Thus is it in France. Turn now to Ireland. "On that great festival
of the Irish peasantry, St. John's Eve," says Charlotte Elizabeth, describing
a particular festival which she had witnessed, "it is the custom, at sunset
on that evening, to kindle immense fires throughout the country, built, like
our bonfires, to a great height, the pile being composed of turf, bogwood, and
such other combustible substances as they can gather. The turf yields a steady,
substantial body of fire, the bogwood a most brilliant flame, and the effect
of these great beacons blazing on every hill, sending up volumes of smoke from
every point of the horizon, is very remarkable. Early in the evening the peasants
began to assemble, all habited in their best array, glowing with health, every
countenance full of that sparkling animation and excess of enjoyment that characterise
the enthusiastic people of the land. I had never seen anything resembling it;
and was exceedingly delighted with their handsome, intelligent, merry faces;
the bold bearing of the men, and the playful but really modest deportment of
the maidens; the vivacity of the aged people, and the wild glee of the children.
The fire being kindled, a splendid blaze shot up; and for a while they stood
contemplating it with faces strangely disfigured by the peculiar light first
emitted when the bogwood was thrown on it. After a short pause, the ground was
cleared in front of an old blind piper, the very beau ideal of energy, drollery,
and shrewdness, who, seated on a low chair, with a well-plenished jug within
his reach, screwed his pipes to the liveliest tunes, and the endless jig began.
But something was to follow that puzzled me not a little. When the fire burned
for some hours and got low, an indispensable part of the ceremony commenced.
Every one present of the peasantry passed through it, and several children were
thrown across the sparkling embers; while a wooden frame of some eight feet
long, with a horse's head fixed to one end, and a large white sheet thrown over
it, concealing the wood and the man on whose head it was carried, made its appearance.
This was greeted with loud shouts as the 'white horse'; and having been safely
carried, by the skill of its bearer, several times through the fire with a bold
leap, it pursued the people, who ran screaming in every direction. I asked what
the horse was meant for, and was told it represented 'all cattle.' Here," adds
the authoress, "was the old Pagan worship of Baal, if not of Moloch too, carried
on openly and universally in the heart of a nominally Christian country, and
by millions professing the Christian name! I was confounded, for I did not then
know that Popery is only a crafty adaptation of Pagan idolatries to its own
scheme."

Such is the festival of St. John's
Eve, as celebrated at this day in France and in Popish Ireland. Such is the
way in which the votaries of Rome pretend to commemorate the birth of him who
came to prepare the way of the Lord, by turning away His ancient people from
all their refuges of lies, and shutting them up to the necessity of embracing
that kingdom of God that consists not in any mere external thing, but in "righteousness,
and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." We have seen that the very sight of the
rites with which that festival is celebrated, led the authoress just quoted
at once to the conclusion that what she saw before her was truly a relic of
the Pagan worship of Baal. The history of the festival, and the way in which
it is observed, reflect mutual light upon each other. Before Christianity entered
the British Isles, the Pagan festival of the 24th of June was celebrated among
the Druids by blazing fires in honour of their great divinity, who, as we have
already seen, was Baal. "These Midsummer fires and sacrifices," says Toland,
in his Account of the Druids, "were [intended] to obtain a blessing on the fruits
of the earth, now becoming ready for gathering; as those of the first of May,
that they might prosperously grow; and those of the last of October were a thanksgiving
for finishing the harvest." Again, speaking of the Druidical fires at Midsummer,
he thus proceeds: "To return to our carn-fires, it was customary for the lord
of the place, or his son, or some other person of distinction, to take the entrails
of the sacrificed animals in his hands, and, walking barefoot over the coals
thrice after the flames had ceased, to carry them straight to the Druid, who
waited in a whole skin at the altar. If the nobleman escaped harmless, it was
reckoned a good omen, welcomed with loud acclamations; but if he received any
hurt, it was deemed unlucky both to the community and himself." "Thus, I have
seen," adds Toland, "the people running and leaping through the St. John's fires
in Ireland; and not only proud of passing unsinged, but, as if it were some
kind of lustration, thinking themselves in an especial manner blest by the ceremony,
of whose original, nevertheless, they were wholly ignorant, in their imperfect
imitation of it." We have seen reason already to conclude that Phoroneus, "the
first of mortals that reigned"--i.e., Nimrod and the Roman goddess Feronia--bore
a relation to one another. In connection with the firs of "St. John," that relation
is still further established by what has been handed down from antiquity in
regard to these two divinities; and, at the same time, the origin of these fires
is elucidated. Phoroneus is described in such a way as shows that he was known
as having been connected with the origin of fire-worship. Thus does Pausanias
refer to him: "Near this image [the image of Biton] they [the Argives] enkindle
a fire, for they do not admit that fire was given by Prometheus, to men, but
ascribe the invention of it to Phoroneus." There must have been something tragic
about the death of this fire-inventing Phoroneus, who "first gathered mankind
into communities"; for, after describing the position of his sepulchre, Pausanias
adds: "Indeed, even at present they perform funeral obsequies to Phoroneus";
language which shows that his death must have been celebrated in some such way
as that of Bacchus. Then the character of the worship of Feronia, as coincident
with fire-worship, is evident from the rites practised by the priests at the
city lying at the foot of Mount Socracte, called by her name. "The priests,"
says Bryant, referring both to Pliny and Strabo as his authorities, "with their
feet naked, walked over a large quantity of live coals and cinders." To this
same practice we find Aruns in Virgil referring, when addressing Apollo, the
sun-god, who had his shrine at Soracte, where Feronia was worshipped, and who
therefore must have been the same as Jupiter Anxur, her contemplar divinity,
who was regarded as a "youthful Jupiter," even as Apollo was often called the
"young Apollo":

"O patron of Soracte's high abodes,
Phoebus, the ruling power among the gods,
Whom first we serve; whole woods of unctuous pine
Are felled for thee, and to thy glory shine.
By thee protected, with our naked soles,
Through flames unsinged we march and tread the kindled coals." *

* DRYDEN'S Virgil
Aeneid. "The young Apollo," when "born to introduce law and order among the
Greeks," was said to have made his appearance at Delphi "exactly in the middle
of summer." (MULLER'S Dorians)

Thus the St. John's fires, over
whose cinders old and young are made to pass, are traced up to "the first of
mortals that reigned."

It is remarkable, that a festival
attended with all the essential rites of the fire-worship of Baal, is found
among Pagan nations, in regions most remote from one another, about the very
period of the month of Tammuz, when the Babylonian god was anciently celebrated.
Among the Turks, the fast of Ramazan, which, says Hurd, begins on the 12th of
June, is attended by an illumination of burning lamps. *

* HURD'S Rites
and Ceremonies. The time here given by Hurd would not in itself be decisive
as a proof of agreement with the period of the original festival of Tammuz;
for a friend who has lived for three years in Constantinople informs me that,
in consequence of the disagreement between the Turkish and the solar year, the
fast of Ramazan ranges in succession through all the different months in the
year. The fact of a yearly illumination in connection with religious observances,
however, is undoubted.

In China where the Dragon-boat festival
is celebrated in such a way as vividly to recall to those who have witnessed
it, the weeping for Adonis, the solemnity begins at Midsummer. In Peru, during
the reign of the Incas, the feast of Raymi, the most magnificent feast of the
Peruvians, when the sacred fire every year used to be kindled anew from the
sun, by means of a concave mirror of polished metal, took place at the very
same period. Regularly as Midsummer came round, there was first, in token of
mourning, "for three days, a general fast, and no fire was allowed to be lighted
in their dwellings," and then, on the fourth day, the mourning was turned into
joy, when the Inca, and his court, followed by the whole population of Cuzco,
assembled at early dawn in the great square to greet the rising of the sun.
"Eagerly," says Prescott, "they watched the coming of the deity, and no sooner
did his first yellow rays strike the turrets and loftiest buildings of the capital,
than a shout of gratulation broke forth from the assembled multitude, accompanied
by songs of triumph, and the wild melody of barbaric instruments, that swelled
louder and louder as his bright orb, rising above the mountain range towards
the east, shone in full splendour on his votaries." Could this alternate mourning
and rejoicing, at the very time when the Babylonians mourned and rejoiced over
Tammuz, be accidental? As Tammuz was the Sun-divinity incarnate, it is easy
to see how such mourning and rejoicing should be connected with the worship
of the sun. In Egypt, the festival of the burning lamps, in which many have
already been constrained to see the counterpart of the festival of St. John,
was avowedly connected with the mourning and rejoicing for Osiris. "At Sais,"
says Herodotus, "they show the sepulchre of him whom I do not think it right
to mention on this occasion." This is the invariable way in which the historian
refers to Osiris, into whose mysteries he had been initiated, when giving accounts
of any of the rites of his worship. "It is in the sacred enclosure behind the
temple of Minerva, and close to the wall of this temple, whose whole length
it occupies. They also meet at Sais, to offer sacrifice during a certain night,
when every one lights, in the open air, a number of lamps around his house.
The lamps consist of small cups filled with salt and oil, having a wick floating
in it which burns all night. This festival is called the festival of burning
lamps. The Egyptians who are unable to attend also observe the sacrifice, and
burn lamps at home, so that not only at Sais, but throughout Egypt, the same
illumination takes place. They assign a sacred reason for the festival celebrated
on this night, and for the respect they have for it." Wilkinson, in quoting
this passage of Herodotus, expressly identifies this festival with the lamentation
for Osiris, and assures us that "it was considered of the greatest consequence
to do honour to the deity by the proper performance of this rite."

Among the Yezidis, or Devil-worshippers
of Modern Chaldea, the same festival is celebrated at this day, with rites probably
almost the same, so far as circumstances will allow, as thousands of years ago,
when in the same regions the worship of Tammuz was in all its glory. Thus graphically
does Mr. Layard describe a festival of this kind at which he himself had been
present: "As the twilight faded, the Fakirs, or lower orders of priests, dressed
in brown garments of coarse cloth, closely fitting to their bodies, and wearing
black turbans on their heads, issued from the tomb, each bearing a light in
one hand, and a pot of oil, with a bundle of cotton wick in the other. They
filled and trimmed lamps placed in niches in the walls of the courtyard and
scattered over the buildings on the sides of the valley, and even on isolated
rocks, and in the hollow trunks of trees. Innumerable stars appeared to glitter
on the black sides of the mountain and in the dark recesses of the forest. As
the priests made their way through the crowd to perform their task, men and
women passed their right hands through the flame; and after rubbing the right
eyebrow with the part which had been purified by the sacred element, they devoutly
carried it to their lips. Some who bore children in their arms anointed them
in like manner, whilst others held out their hands to be touched by those who,
less fortunate than themselves, could not reach the flame...As night advanced,
those who had assembled--they must now have amounted to nearly five thousand
persons--lighted torches, which they carried with them as they wandered through
the forest. The effect was magical: the varied groups could be faintly distinguished
through the darkness--men hurrying to and fro--women with their children seated
on the house-tops--and crowds gathering round the pedlars, who exposed their
wares for sale in the courtyard. Thousands of lights were reflected in the fountains
and streams, glimmered amongst the foliage of the trees, and danced in the distance.
As I was gazing on this extraordinary scene, the hum of human voices was suddenly
hushed, and a strain, solemn and melancholy, arose from the valley. It resembled
some majestic chant which years before I had listened to in the cathedral of
a distant land. Music so pathetic and so sweet I never before heard in the East.
The voices of men and women were blended in harmony with the soft notes of many
flutes. At measured intervals the song was broken by the loud clash of cymbals
and tambourines; and those who were within the precincts of the tomb then joined
in the melody...The tambourines, which were struck simultaneously, only interrupted
at intervals the song of the priests. As the time quickened they broke in more
frequently. The chant gradually gave way to a lively melody, which, increasing
in measure, was finally lost in a confusion of sounds. The tambourines were
beaten with extraordinary energy--the flutes poured forth a rapid flood of notes--the
voices were raised to the highest pitch--the men outside joined in the cry--whilst
the women made the rocks resound with the shrilltahlehl.

"The musicians, giving way to the
excitement, threw their instruments into the air, and strained their limbs into
every contortion, until they fell exhausted to the ground. I never heard a more
frightful yell than that which rose in the valley. It was midnight. I gazed
with wonder upon the extraordinary scene around me. Thus were probably celebrated
ages ago the mysterious rites of the Corybantes, when they met in some consecrated
grove." Layard does not state at what period of the year this festival occurred;
but his language leaves little doubt that he regarded it as a festival of Bacchus;
in other words, of the Babylonian Messiah, whose tragic death, and subsequent
restoration to life and glory, formed the cornerstone of ancient Paganism. The
festival was avowedly held in honour at once of Sheikh Shems, or the Sun, and
of the Sheik Adi, or "Prince of Eternity," around whose tomb nevertheless the
solemnity took place, just as the lamp festival in Egypt, in honour of the sun-god
Osiris, was celebrated in the precincts of the tomb of that god at Sais.

Now, the reader cannot fail to have
observed that in this Yezidi festival, men, women, and children were "PURIFIED"
by coming in contact with "the sacred element" of fire. In the rites of Zoroaster,
the great Chaldean god, fire occupied precisely the same place. It was laid
down as an essential principle in his system, that "he who approached to fire
would receive a light from divinity," (TAYLOR'S Jamblichus) and that "through
divine fire all the stains produced by generation would be purged away" (PROCLUS,
Timaeo). Therefore it was that "children were made to pass through the fire
to Moloch" (Jer 32:35), to purge them from original sin, and through this purgation
many a helpless babe became a victim to the bloody divinity. Among the Pagan
Romans, this purifying by passing through the fire was equally observed; "for,"
says Ovid, enforcing the practice, "Fire purifies both the shepherd and the
sheep." Among the Hindoos, from time immemorial, fire has been worshipped for
its purifying efficacy. Thus a worshipper is represented by Colebrooke, according
to the sacred books, as addressing the fire: "Salutation to thee [O fire!],
who dost seize oblations, to thee who dost shine, to thee who dost scintillate,
may thy auspicious flame burn our foes; mayest thou, the PURIFIER, be auspicious
unto us." There are some who maintain a "perpetual fire," and perform daily
devotions to it, and in "concluding the sacraments of the gods," thus every
day present their supplications to it: "Fire, thou dost expiate a sin against
the gods; may this oblation be efficacious. Thou dost expiate a sin against
man; thou dost expiate a sin against the manes [departed spirits]; thou dost
expiate a sin against my own soul; thou dost expiate repeated sins; thou dost
expiate every sin which I have committed, whether wilfully or unintentionally;
may this oblation be efficacious." Among the Druids, also, fire was celebrated
as the purifier. Thus, in a Druidic song, we read, "They celebrated the praise
of the holy ones in the presence of the purifying fire, which was made to ascend
on high" (DAVIES'S Druids, "Song to the Sun"). If, indeed, a blessing was expected
in Druidical times from lighting the carn-fires, and making either young or
old, either human beings or cattle, pass through the fire, it was simply in
consequence of the purgation from sin that attached to human beings and all
things connected with them, that was believed to be derived from this passing
through the fire. It is evident that this very same belief about the "purifying"
efficacy of fire is held by the Roman Catholics of Ireland, when they are so
zealous to pass both themselves and their children through the fires of St.
John. * Toland testifies that it is as a "lustration" that these fires are kindled;
and all who have carefully examined the subject must come to the same conclusion.

* "I have seen
parents," said the late Lord J. Scott in a letter to me, "force their children
to go through the Baal-fires."

Now, if Tammuz was, as we have seen,the
same as Zoroaster, the god of the ancient "fire-worshippers," and if his festival
in Babylon so exactly synchronised with the feast of the Nativity of St. John,
what wonder that that feast is still celebrated by the blazing "Baal-fires,"
and that it presents so faithful a copy of what was condemned by Jehovah of
old in His ancient people when they "made their children pass through the fire
to Moloch"? But who that knows anything of the Gospel would call such a festival
as this a Christian festival? The Popish priests, if they do not openly teach,
at least allow their deluded votaries to believe, as firmly s ever ancient fire
worshipper did, that material fire can purge away the guilt and stain of sin.
How that tends to rivet upon the minds of their benighted vassals one of the
most monstrous but profitable fables of their system, will come to be afterwards
considered.

The name Oannes could be known only
to the initiated as the name of the Pagan Messiah; and at first, some measure
of circumspection was necessary in introducing Paganism into the Church. But,
as time went on, as the Gospel became obscured, and the darkness became more
intense, the same caution was by no means so necessary. Accordingly, we find
that, in the dark ages, the Pagan Messiah has not been brought into the Church
in a mere clandestine manner. Openly and avowedly under his well known classic
names of Bacchus and Dionysus, has he been canonised, and set up for the worship
of the "faithful." Yes, Rome, that professes to be pre-eminently the Bride of
Christ, the only Church in which salvation is to be found, has had the unblushing
effrontery to give the grand Pagan adversary of the Son of God, UNDER HIS OWN
PROPER NAME, a place in her calendar. The reader has only to turn to the Roman
calendar, and he will find that this is a literal fact; he will find that October
the 7th is set apart to be observed in honour of "St. Bacchus the Martyr." Now,
no doubt, Bacchus was a "martyr"; he died a violent death; he lost his life
for religion; but the religion for which he died was the religion of the fire-worshippers;
for he was put to death, as we have seen from Maimonides, for maintaining the
worship of the host of heaven. This patron of the heavenly host, and of fire
worship (for the two went always hand in hand together), has Rome canonised;
for that this "St. Bacchus the Martyr" was the identical Bacchus of the Pagans,
the god of drunkenness and debauchery, is evident from the time of his festival;
for October the 7th follows soon after the end of the vintage. At the end of
the vintage in autumn, the old Pagan Romans used to celebrate what was called
the "Rustic Festival" of Bacchus; and about that very time does the Papal festival
of "St Bacchus the Martyr" occur.

As the Chalden god has been admitted
into the Roman calendar under the name of Bacchus, so also is he canonised under
his other name of Dionysus. The Pagans were in the habit of worshipping the
same god under different names; and, accordingly, not content with the festival
to Bacchus, under the name by which he was most commonly known at Rome, the
Romans, no doubt to please the Greeks, celebrated a rustic festival to him,
two days afterwards, under the name of Dionysus Eleuthereus, the name by which
he was worshipped in Greece. That "rustic" festival was briefly called by the
name of Dionysia; or, expressing its object more fully, the name became "Festum
Dionysi Eleutherei rusticum"--i.e., the "rustic festival of Dionysus Eleuthereus."
(BEGG'S Handbook of Popery) Now, the Papacy in its excess of zeal for saints
and saint-worship, has actually split Dionysus Eleuthereus into two, has made
two several saints out of the double name of one Pagan divinity; and more than
that, has made the innocent epithet "Rusticum," which, even among the heathen,
had no pretension to divinity at all, a third; and so it comes to pass that,
under date of October the 9th, we read this entry in the calendar: "The festival
of St. Dionysius, * and of his companions, St. Eleuther and St. Rustic."

* Though Dionysus
was the proper classic name of the god, yet in Post-classical, or Low Latin,
his name is found Dionysius, just as in the case of the Romish saint.

Now this Dionysius, whom Popery
has so marvellously furnished with two companions, is the famed St. Denys, the
patron saint of Paris; and a comparison of the history of the Popish saint and
the Pagan god will cast no little light on the subject. St. Denys, on being
beheaded and cast into the Seine, so runs the legend, after floating a space
on its waters, to the amazement of the spectators, took up his head in his hand,
and so marched away with it to the place of burial. In commemoration of so stupendous
a miracle, a hymn was duly chanted for many a century in the Cathedral of St.
Denys, at Paris, containing the following verse:

"The corpse immediately arose;
The trunk bore away the dissevered head,
Guided on its way by a legion of angels."
(SALVERTE, Des Sciences Occultes

At last, even Papists began to be
ashamed of such an absurdity being celebrated in the name of religion; and in
1789, "the office of St. Denys" was abolished. Behold, however, the march of
events. The world has for some time past been progressing back again to the
dark ages. The Romish Breviary, which had been given up in France, has, within
the last six years, been reimposed by Papal authority on the Gallican Church,
with all its lying legends, and this among the rest of them; the Cathedral of
St. Denys is again being rebuilt, and the old worship bids fair to be restored
in all its grossness. Now, how could it ever enter the minds of men to invent
so monstrous a fable? The origin of it is not far to seek. The Church of Rome
represented her canonised saints, who were said to have suffered martyrdom by
the sword, as headless images or statues with the severed head borne in the
hand. "I have seen," says Eusebe Salverte, "in a church of Normandy, St. Clair;
St. Mithra, at Arles, in Switzerland, all the soldiers of the Theban legion
represented with their heads in their hands. St. Valerius is thus figured at
Limoges, on the gates of the cathedral, and other monuments. The grand seal
of the canton of Zurich represents, in the same attitude, St. Felix, St. Regula,
and St. Exsuperantius. There certainly is the origin of the pious fable which
is told of these martyrs, such as St. Denys and many others besides." This was
the immediate origin of the story of the dead saint rising up and marching away
with his head in his hand. But it turns out that this very mode of representation
was borrowed from Paganism, and borrowed in such a way as identifies the Papal
St. Denys of Paris with the Pagan Dionysus, not only of Rome but of Babylon.
Dionysus or Bacchus, in one of his transformations, was represented as Capricorn,
the "goat-horned fish"; and there is reason to believe that it was in this very
form that he had the name of Oannes. In this form in India, under the name "Souro,"
that is evidently "the seed," he is said to have done many marvellous things.
(For Oannes and Souro, see note
below) Now, in the Persian Sphere he was not only represented mystically as Capricorn,
but also in the human shape; and then exactly as St. Denys is represented by the
Papacy. The words of the ancient writer who describes this figure in the Persian
Sphere are these: "Capricorn, the third Decan. The half of the figure without
a head, because its head is in its hand." Nimrod had his head cut off; and in
commemoration of that fact, which his worshippers so piteously bewailed, his image
in the Sphere was so represetned. That dissevered head, in some of the versions
of his story, was fabled to have done as marvellous things as any that were done
by the lifeless trunk of St. Denys. Bryant has proved, in this story of Orpheus,
that it is just a slighty-coloured variety of the story of Osiris. *

* BRYANT. The
very name Orpheus is just a synonym for Bel, the name of the great Babylonian
god, which, while originally given to Cush, became hereditary in the line of
his deified descendants. Bel signifies "to mix," as well as "to confound," and
"Orv" in Hebrew, which in Chaldee becomes Orph, signifies also "to mix." But
"Orv," or "Orph," signifies besides "a willow-tree"; and therefore, in exact
accordance with the mystic system, we find the symbol of Orpheus among the Greeks
to have been a willow-tree. Thus, Pausanias, after referring to a representation
of Actaeon, says, "If again you look to the lower parts of the picture, you
will see after Patroclus, Orpheus sitting on a hill, with a harp in his left
hand, and in his right hand the leaves of a willow-tree"; and again, a little
furthe on, he says: "He is represented leaning on the trunk of this tree." The
willow-leaves in the right hand of Orpheus, and the willow-tree on which he
leans, sufficiently show the meaning of his name.

As Osiris was cut in pieces in Egypt,
so Orpheus was torn in pieces in Thrace. Now, when the mangled limbs of the
latter had been strewn about the field, his head, floating on the Hebrus, gave
proof of the miraculous character of him that owned it. "Then," says Virgil:

"Then, when his head from his fair
shoulders torn,
Washed by the waters, was on Hebrus borne,
Even then his trembling voice invoked his bride,
With his last voice, 'Eurydice,' he creid;
'Eurydice,' the rockes and river banks replied."

There is diversity here, but amidst
that diversity there is an obvious unity. In both cases, thehead dissevered
from the lifeless body occupies the foreground of the picture; in both cases,
the miracle is in connection with a river. Now, when the festivals of "St. Bacchus
the Martyr," and of "St. Dionysius and Eleuther," so remarkably agree with the
time when the festivals of the Pagan god of wine were celbrated, whether by
the name of Bacchus, or Dionysus, or Eleuthereus, and when the mode of representing
the modern Dionysius and the ancient Dionysus are evidently the very same, while
the legends of both so strikiingly harmonise, who can doubt the real character
of those Romish festivals? They are not Christina. They are Pagan; they are
unequivocally Babylonian.

Note

The reason for believing that Oannes,
that was said to have been the first of the fabulous creatures that came up
out of the sea and instructed the Babylonians, was represented as the goat-horned
fish, is as follows: First, the name Oannes, as elsewhere shown, is just the
Greek form of He-annesh, or "The man," which is a synonym for the name of our
first parent, Adam. Now, Adam can be proved to be the original of Pan, who was
also called Inuus, which is just another pronunciation of Anosh without the
article, which, in our translation of Genesis 5:7, is made Enos. This name,
as universally admitted, is the generic name for man after the Fall, as weak
and diseased. The o in Enos is what is called the vau, which sometimes is pronounced
o, sometimes u, and sometimes v or w. A legitimate pronunciation of Enos, therefore,
is just Enus or Enws, the same in sound as Inuus, the Ancient Roman name of
Pan. The name Pan itself signifies "He who turned aside." As the Hebrew word
for "uprightness" signifies "walking straight in the way," so every deviation
from the straight line of duty was Sin; Hata, the word for sin, signifying generically
"to go aside from the straight line." Pan, it is admitted, was the Head of the
Satyrs--that is, "the first of the Hidden Ones," for Satyr and Satur, "the Hidden
One," are evidently just the same word; and Adam was the first of mankind that
hid himself. Pan is said to have loved a nymph called Pitho, or, as it is given
in another form, Pitys (SMITH, "Pan"); and what is Pitho or Pitys but just the
name of the beguiling woman, who, having been beguiled herself, acted the part
of a beguiler of her husband, and induced him to take the step, in consequence
of which he earned the name Pan, "The man that turned aside." Pitho or Pitys
evidently come from Peth or Pet, "to beguile," from which verb also the famous
serpent Python derived its name. This conclusion in regard to the personal identity
of Pan and Pitho is greatly confirmed by the titles given to the wife of Faunus.
Faunus, says Smith, is "merely another name for Pan." *

* In Chaldee
the same letter that is pronounced P is also pronounced Ph, that is F, therefore
Pan is just Faun.

Now, the wife of Faunus was called
Oma, Fauna, and Fatua, which names plainly mean "The mother that turned aside,
being beguiled." This beguiled mother is also called indifferently "the sister,
wife, or daughter" of her husband; and how this agrees with the relations of
Eve to Adam, the reader does not need to be told.

Now, a title of Pan was Capricornus,
or "The goat-horned" (DYMOCK, "Pan"), and the origin of this title must be traced
to what took place when our first parent became the Head of the Satyrs--the
"first of the Hidden ones." He fled to hide himself; and Berkha, "a fugitive,"
signifies also "a he-goat." Hence the origin of the epithet Capricornus, or
"goat-horned," as applied to Pan. But as Capricornus in the sphere is generally
represented as the "Goat-fish," if Capricornus represents Pan, or Adam, or Oannes,
that shows that it must be Adam, after, through virtue of the metempsychosis,
he had passed through the waters of the deluge: the goat, as the symbol of Pan,
representing Adam, the first father of mankind, combined with the fish, the
symbol of Noah, the second father of the human race; of both whom Nimrod, as
at once Kronos, "the father of the gods," and Souro, "the seed," was a new incarnation.
Among the idols of Babylon, as represented in KITTO'S Illust. Commentary, we
find a representation of this very Capricornus, or goat-horned fish; and Berosus
tells us that the well known representations of Pan, of which Capricornus is
a modification, were found in Babylon in the most ancient times. A great deal
more of evidence might be adduced on this subject; but I submit to the reader
if the above statement does not sufficiently account for the origin of the remarkable
figure in the Zodiac, "The goat-horned fish."